Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Inferno - Dan Brown

I have read Dan Brown a couple other times, but his books always seem a blur to me. Now, that can be looked at as good and bad. On the good side, his stories are always fast-paced page turning novels that are full of references to art and political history. They're very well researched and the famous names and historical events that are enmeshed within the plot are always seamlessly woven into the storyline. The bad side of reading his books so fast is that there is always a lot to absorb and keep straight, and I tend to forget them almost as soon as I've finished them. Sure, I can tell you the basic ghist of the books, but most of the details go by the board; there's just too much stimulus load poured too quickly into my poor brain.

Inferno is no exception. Once again, Robert Langdon finds himself deep in the middle of intrigue and running for his life, as he fights the clock to solve a mystery involving a strange attack that puts him in the hospital with a bullet wound to the head, a bizarre hidden capsule that he has 'muled' in some weird way, a memory loss that is disorienting, strange dreams that are prophetic and somehow tied to what has happened to him during a 'lost couple of days'. Once again, Langdon hooks himself up with a young female cohort that helps him navigate dangers and sticky situations. Once again, Langdon uses his encyclopedic knowledge of history, art, and literature to put the pieces of his life in order and come up with a solution to a potentially horrific international catastrophe.

No spoilers here ... this book will familiarize you with Dante's Divine Comedy, Italian Renaissance art, and the city of Florence. You'll enjoy padding around after Robert Langdon. He's a likeable protagonist. I can see Mr. Brown making a long series of stories with Langdon as the central character. Detective stories for art and history geeks ... there's a real niche there.

A word of advice --- read the book when you have a couple days to stay up late turning the pages. Sleep deprivation is a drag when you've read half the night away and then, you have to get up and produce.

An aside ---- betting on a movie production ... it can't be too far behind the book. The question is ... will Tom Hanks keep it up as RL or will we see a new face in the role?

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